By Jeff Tamarkin

World Music Features
Think of One
The sextet Think of One may well possess one of the most inapt monikers in all of music: Although jazz innovator Thelonious Monk once penned a song by that name, Think of One is anything but single-minded.
By Jeff Tamarkin

World Music Features
Soweto Gospel Choir
Even the most skeptical of atheists would have difficulty not being elevated to a state of rapturous euphoria by the sound of Soweto Gospel Choir. The 32-member-strong ensemble may draw its inspiration from above, but it’s down here on terra firma that this South African bundle of joy is spreading its good news.
By Jeff Tamarkin

Travel Disney WorldMax, our eight-year-old son, having become enamored of geography and foreign culture—from his third-grade class—was ready to see the world. But, being eight years old, he wanted it to have rides.
By Jeff Tamarkin

African Legends Babatunde OlatunjiThe importance of Babatunde Olatunji is incalculable. At a time when Westerners were exposed to almost nothing of African culture, Olatunji entered the mass consciousness with Drums Of Passion.
By Jeff Tamarkin

African Legends The Master Musicians of JajoukaIt’s difficult to imagine today, just how shocking an album Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka was when it was released in 1971.
By Jeff Tamarkin

African Legends Mory KantéMory Kanté is a living bridge between hundreds of years of West African Mande griot tradition (wordsmiths who pass along history orally through poetry and song) and the modern world.
By Jeff Tamarkin

African Legends Tabu Ley RochereauIt’s been more than half a century since Tabu Ley Rochereau first graced a stage, and to this day there is no more prominent figure in Congolese music.
By Jeff Tamarkin

World Music Features
The Refugee All-Stars
The Refugee All-Stars’ mix of roots reggae, Afropop, hip-hop and traditional West African goombay music--fused with its direct English-language lyrics--address the brutality, struggle, and the hopefulness of displaced Sierra Leoneans.
By Jeff Tamarkin

World Music Features
Soweto Gospel Choir
“Africa is like a beast that has been sleeping all along but has now woken up,” says David Mulovhedzi, musical director of the Soweto Gospel Choir, “And now we’re showing the world what we’ve got.”
By Jeff Tamarkin